


A Year Off Balance On A Tilted Trajectory

by Ezri_Dax



Category: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-09
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-26 03:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/961009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ezri_Dax/pseuds/Ezri_Dax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Beca wanted was a quiet year before she could go off and do her own thing on Omega. Accidently getting involved in taking down a drug Cartel was by far not what she was expecting to do at all. Set in 2138. This story has been updated from previously. Beca/Chloe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [My Bestfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=My+Bestfriend).



> As always I do like constructive criticism as I like to improve every way I can. But if you're going to insult me for getting a tiny detail wrong, then please take your flames elsewhere. They're hurtful and discouraging.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not in any way own the Characters; I just take them out to play. :)
> 
> Btw – The Space Station is called The Georgia. But I'll mainly refer to it as 'The Station' or something.
> 
> So, as the French say, Allons-ey!

There were three things that Beca absolutely loathed about travelling. The first thing she hated was the ridiculous amount of shaking involved. Despite the fact that humanity mastered the art of space flight several decades ago, it seemed that engineers still hadn't managed to find a way to take away the constant jolting and shuddering. Whenever the shuttle would encounter solar winds or enter a new atmosphere the whole vehicle would shake uncontrollably and despite the numerous seat belts and safety harnesses set in place, you never walked out of the docking without looking almost completely dishevelled.

Secondly there seemed to be a consistent frequency whenever she travelled where people would try and engage in conversation with her. The all paid no heed to the fact that she just didn't want to talk to anyone despite the fact she always had her headphones on whilst radiating her best 'leave me alone' aura. She didn't like to bother talking to people who she did see and interact with on a daily basis let alone those who she'd likely never see again.

Besides the shuttles were huge and carried hundreds of people at a time, they could go find someone else to bother.

The worst thing about travelling however was by far the constant security checks set in place. The security on any spaceport was extremely tight. The amount of damage just one terrorist attack could wreck was phenomenal and the cost to repair said damage was just as mouth dropping. Their logo ran along the lines of 'Better safe than sorry.' But the security here was much tighter than any other port she'd travelled through, much to her annoyance.

She checked the time, they'd already checked her passport and scanned her face for identification, but now she had to undergo a medical shake down just to prove that she wasn't carrying any contagious diseases or such like. The zealous border check was bordering on stupidly overprotective. They even had posters put up around the place offering cash rewards for reliable and useful information given on crime in the district. Drugs seemed to be their main focus.

Useful, for those who need the money. Beca thought.

Despite her irritation, she had to hand it to the securitell, even if it was somewhat begrudgingly, the sickness and crime rates on the Georgia were significantly lower than anywhere else that she knew of.

"Beca Mitchell?"

Her head snapped up and immediately focused on the two people that had entered the medical facility. Two women briskly walked towards her in their white lab coats. The elder, a stern faced, grey haired woman gave Beca a quick glance, looked down at her medical clip board and then turned to the younger, redheaded woman beside her. "She's all yours, you know what to do."

Then she pushed the medical chart into the redhead's hands walked straight out of the room, not bothering to say anything to Beca who had already raised an unimpressed eyebrow at her distinct lack of bedside manner.

The two of them turned to look at each other awkwardly. Or at least Beca did. The other woman however didn't seem to be nonplussed and immediately stepped forward with a smile on her face.

"Hi there. Sorry about that, we're just... a bit busy around here and she... has other things to do." She stopped a few feet away from Beca and quickly looked at the chart in her hands before smiling at Beca again.

"Too busy for even a hello?" Beca didn't try to hide her disparaging tone.

"Yeah, well... I'm sorry about that." The red head gave her an apologetic look and cleared her throat. "Anyway, I'm Chloe and I guess I'm the one who's going to do your health check today."

Beca gave her a quick, unenthusiastic smile in return but then sighed. "Can we just get this over with, please?"

"Oh, uh, yeah sure. I bet you're tired. Ok, well, I'm going to have to ask you a few questions and run a few small tests but then you're good to go. Is that Ok?"

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Good." Chloe said with a smile. "Well, we might as well get to know each other with the questions first. Please, sit down." She said, gesturing toward the two chairs in the room. How Beca had not noticed them before was beyond her. Although, she had been staring out of the window onto the station's broad walk rather than studying her closer surroundings. Living on a space station was going to be a hell of a lot different than Earth. That much was already clear.

Beca shouldered her laptop bag and walked over with Chloe before setting it down beside her chair that faced the unusually cheerful redhead. It was the one bag that she had vehemently insisted on keeping with her at all times, not allowing anyone to move it for her for fear of damaging the laptop inside. Anything else could easily be replaced, but to her, her laptop was priceless.

When she had asked about where her other luggage was earlier, she'd simply been told that her baggage had already been managed by the sector staff and that it was already on its way to her new apartment, which she'd been told she apparently shared with someone else. In all honesty Beca hadn't cared as much as she should have done; her need for freedom from the constant lack of personal space over the past week had had her wanting to get away from the bustling space port as soon as possible. Her days spent travelling had quickly whittled down what little patience she had to start with.

Chloe's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "Ok, so your name is Beca Mitchell and... you're twenty years old, correct?"

"Yep."

"No middle name?"

"Nope." At Beca's curt answers, Chloe smile slipped a little causing the brunette to instantly regret her tone. She was tired, hungry and grumpy and now she was taking it out on her doctor.

Great move Beca, just fantastic.

She immediately backtracked. "My, er, parents were too lazy to think of a middle name."

The corners of Chloe's mouth twitched upwards until it fully bloomed into a toothy grin. "Well that's actually a good thing; it means that people can't embarrass you in public. Mine for example is particularly bad."

Beca inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Not permanently offending her Doctor actually made her feel a little better; she seemed to accidently insult people all too much. Not that it concerned her much; it wasn't as if she'd see the redhead again after today.

Beca tilted her head slightly, her right eyebrow raising quizzically "How bad?"

Chloe leaned back, shaking her hands in front of her. "Oh no. We do not know each other well enough for that." She caught Beca's eye. "Besides if I told you, I'd have to kill you." She said with a wink.

"Really? It's that bad?"

"Trust me; I'm doing you a favour. Now, do you have any family medical history? You know, heart problems, cancer, anything like that?"

"Nope, as far as I know, we're all good."

"That's good to hear. Ok, do you have any allergies?"

"I'm allergic to assholes." Beca gave her a small but crooked smirk.

Chloe let out a short laugh. "Hah. Who isn't?" The redhead looked back down at her chart. "Ok so, do you smoke or drink at all?"

Beca lifted her eyebrows in amusement, the corners of her mouth curling upwards again. "Uh, who doesn't drink? And no, I don't smoke."

Chloe chuckled lightly as she made notes. "Ok, let me rephrase that smart ass. How often and how much do you drink a week?"

"Somehow I don't think calling me a smart ass is going to go well with your 'professionalism' as a doctor." Beca air quoted.

"Oh please, I'm an intern. I haven't developed professionalism yet."

"An intern huh?" Beca's surprise didn't last for more than a second before her cool facade slipped back in place again. "You're not going to accidently kill me are you? Because getting here was a bitch."

"I'll try my best not to kill you with all my questions, but I warn you, they're pretty boring so brace yourself."

"Oh that's fine, I've managed to sleep through all my collage lectures and survive."

Rolling her eyes Chloe opened her mouth to speak again but was cut short by a tall, blonde woman throwing open the door. It took her all of a second to locate the two occupants in the room before hurrying straight up to Chloe without so much of a side glance at Beca.

"Chloe! What are we going to do? We still don't have a team for this year!"

"Uh, Aubrey, I have a patient right now."

The blonde looked over at Beca properly for the first time, realising what she'd just interrupted. "Oh, uh, sorry. Look, this will only take two seconds." And before Beca could even begin to answer she'd already turned back to Chloe, repeating her question. "What are we going to do Chlo? We still need ten super hot girls with bikini ready bodies and really amazing singing voices by the end of this month! We have only have two weeks left!"

Beca couldn't stop herself. "Wow. You totally don't have ridiculously high standards, do you?"

The blonde, Aubrey, looked a little take back. "Excuse me? I don't see how this involves you."

Beca looked ready to throw back a snarky comment but Chloe reached out and put her hand on Beca's arm, effectively distracting her from answering the blonde. "Look, Aubrey, we'll just find really good singers. But can we do this later please? I'm in the middle of an appointment." She said nodding pointedly at Beca, who had already taken her arm away from Chloe's hand.

"She looks fine to me" She said waving a hand dismissively at Beca. "And this is important Chloe! This is A-capella!"

Beca raised her eyebrows incredulously and let out a snort. "A-capella? Seriously, that's still a thing?"

Chloe grinned at her. "Yeah! We all sing covers of songs but we do it without any instruments, it's all from our mouths." Her eyes widened. "Hey! You should totally audition!"

Both Beca and Aubrey looked just as taken back as the other and both tried to speak at the same time.

"-Sorry but ...It's kind of lame."

"-She's way too alternative!"

Both of them turned to look at each other, distain visibly clear on both of their faces. Aubrey spoke first. "Aca-scuse me? Synchronised lady dancing and singing in championships is not lame, you bitch.

Seeing Beca's brow raise and her jaw tense Chloe quickly jumped in to sooth the situation. "Uh, what Aubrey mean's to say is that we are a close knit, talented group of girls whose dream is to return to the Nationals this year, can you help us?"

Beca held Aubrey's glare for a second longer before letting it go; she couldn't be bothered to argue with someone she didn't know or care about. She turned back to Chloe and even looked a little apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry, but I don't even sing." She got up, picking up the strap of her bag as she went. "Just put me down as good to go or something." She said gesturing to the medical forms in Chloe's lap. Then before Chloe could object she walked straight out of the door and into the busy hallway.

 

\----

 

Beca was exhausted. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a proper night's sleep and now that she'd finally met her roommate, she wasn't if she wanted to even wanted to sleep in her new apartment. She still didn't know if her Asian roommate actually spoke English, since she had yet to gain any sort of reaction from the other woman other than a harsh glare.

But before she could try and progress further, or at all, Kimmy Jin – She had found out her name by looking on the Asian's luggage labels – had silently left their room relatively quickly after her father had shown up at the door, but not before throwing a glare over her shoulder.

Beca could already tell she was going to have just a fantastic time here.

She didn't want to be here and she'd made that well and truly known to her father. Who in turn completely ignored her protests and still forced her to move to The Georgia, which was week's worth of travel from Earth and the complete opposite direction to Omega - where she really wanted to go.

Omega Station was the epitome of musical talent. All the big artists at one point or another in their careers had migrated there for a concert or performance and most galaxy wide labels and celebrities lived there. In essence it was the centre of galactic festivity; it was the party that never ended, the station that never slept. It was the galaxy's version of LA on Earth and the place where there was a real possibility you could turn into a celebrity overnight. Definitely the place to be if you're an aspiring DJ.

She sighed. "What do you want Dad?"

Her father shook his head as he closed the door. "Your roommates quite the uh, friendly one." Beca grunted instead of replying and started unzipped her bag. Thankfully her other luggage had all arrived in one piece without anything going missing.

One point to The Georgia delivery system.

Her father cleared his throat and clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "So. Look at you being all grown up!"

"I could be all grown up on Omega Dad."

He sighed. She apparently still hadn't let that go yet. "Life experience is important Beca; you need it before going out into the galaxy."

Beca turned around, her eyes already glaring. "I could go anywhere for life experience Dad. Like Omega! It has jobs, apartments, and people. You know; everything this place has, but better!"

"That place only holds people who piss away all their money, have no responsibility and end up washed up on the side! You're better than that Beca!"

"It's where you go to make music Dad! To make a name for yourself and-" She stopped a closed her eyes for a second and breathed out slowly, trying to let her anger go. "Look, I just want to make music Dad. It's what I want to do, what I've always wanted to do, why can't you see that?"

"Because it's not a proper job Beca, it's a hobby and you can't make money with a hobby."

All the anger flew back. "God! Why won't you listen to me? I just-"

He brought both hands up in surrender but spoke "Look, you get to live on a space station in a brand new apartment, for free I might add, with a ready to go, set up job down in engineering. Do you know how many people get that opportunity?" He didn't let her answer; instead he voice took a gentler tone, almost as if he were pleading. "Please just try it out here, Ok? You might like it."

"Or I'll hate every second I'm going to be trapped here."

He stared into his glaring daughters eyes and sighed. "After a year, if you hate it, if you really hate it. You can go to Omega." He saw Beca's eyes narrow. "But only if you try Beca. Just so you can get to grips with how life works out here. So you can actually see how amazing this place is. Please?"

Beca glared at him before letting out a frustrated breath. She really didn't know why she let him bully her into coming here. She crossed her arms.

"Fine." She answered curtly, both her jaw and fists her clenched tightly. Her father took in a breath but nodded. It was more of a parley than he actually thought he'd get. Still, he felt the need to drive his point home.

"But I'll only do it if you make an effort Beca." He moved to touch her shoulder but she shrank back, fixing him with a darker glare. He sighed. "Just go out there and enjoy yourself Beca. Don't just stay cooped up in here every day." And with that he turned to exit the small apartment, pausing at the door to see if Beca would make a move to stop him. She didn't.

The second the door closed Beca flopped back onto her bed, her head narrowly avoiding hitting the wall. She rubbed her hands over her face and groaned. Conversations, if they could still be called conversations, with her father never ended well and always ended up leaving her angry and upset.

But now her exhaustion was finally catching up on her and she actually found her new bed to be excessively comfortable despite the fairly obvious lumps in the mattress. Still angry she hefted her suitcases as best she could off of her bed and dumped them on the floor, ignoring how a heap of her clothes had spilled out onto the floor. She hoped her roommate wouldn't come back so soon.

She tucked herself under the blankets, disregarding the fact that she was still fully clothed before burying herself into the pillow, letting one last thought run across her mind before slipping into slumber.

This year is going to be a fucking nightmare.


	2. Coffee Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may just steal a little bit from the Mass Effect universe, like 'Omni-tools' though I suppose in this fic they'll essentially be something like an iPhone attached to the wrist. Make sense?

\------

"Jesse come on! I'm starving!"

"Help me then, so we can go on break quicker!"

Beca groaned and weighed the two options carefully. On one hand she was quite happy to continue watching Jesse struggle with his sky car; his cussing was actually very entertaining to the small brunette. But on the other hand... Food.

She sighed and hopped down from her make shift perch atop of some maintenance supplies. "Move aside Swanson and let the expert do her job."

"You fix one car first time and you think you're better than me?" She couldn't see his face as his upper body was still under the mainframe but she could hear the eye roll in his voice.

She smirked. "Pretty much. Now move it."

He rolled out, a dirty smudge in the cleft of his chin and grinned, his hands over his heart. "Such curt words, they do hurt me so!"

She stopped and rolled her eyes. "Weirdo."

Since meeting Jesse on her first day of work the two had become fairly friendly despite Beca's usual tendency to stay away from everyone. It wasn't as if she had much choice in the matter anyway, she'd decided before hand that it was probably best to try and at least like the person she'd be working with for at least the rest of the year.

Like her, Jesse was a newbie right off the shuttle from Earth but he was pretty much opposite to her in every way possible. He was just so outgoing and happy and on more than one occasion she'd convinced herself that he was essentially a puppy dog in human form.

"You know you love me." He said as he watched her crawl under the car with ease.

"Keep dreamin' Jesse and- Dude what the fuck have you done to this engine?"

"What? I just took out the modulation board and started replacing the wires-"

"Yeah, no. I'm not doing this."

"Oh c'mon, you said you'd help me!"

Beca rolled out and ignored Jesse's helping hand. "Because I thought you were stuck on what to do next, not because you'd made bloody mess down there." She hauled herself up and grabbed a towel, wiping her hands as clean as she could get them. Even fiddling with wires for a few seconds was liable to get grease and oil on you when fiddling an engine.

"It's not that bad..."

"So do it yourself then." They walked out of the car bay together and back into the back rooms. Today was their last day of 'living in comfort'. They'd been allowed to work at a sky car repair shop for a week so that they could get to grips with the layout of the Space Station and all of its intricacies. Tomorrow they would be moving into the depths of The Louisiana where they were expected to repair everything and anything thrown their way. It wasn't a bad job; in fact Beca actually enjoyed it. There was definitely something satisfying about fixing a broken object.

"Mitchell! Swanson! What the hell are you doing?"

But then there was the down side; a fat, balding, and completely irrational downside.

Jefferson was not a man who had a pleasant side. He was impatient, demanding and more than a little sexist on occasion. He liked to take out his irritation on anyone but his customers. Both Beca and Jesse groaned and turned around half heartedly, Jesse spoke first, speaking politely.

"We're just taking a break, sir. We're almost done with the sky cars."

"It's not even ten yet and you're taking a break?" Jefferson slammed down the papers in his hands on the desk making Jesse flinch away. "Your break starts at ten thirty! So get out there and work till then!"

"Hey! We've been working since seven this morning, cut us some slack here."

Jefferson turned his glare to Beca and sneered. "We don't keep slackers on this station."

"I've already finished repairing my car and Jesse is almost done with his! That's almost five hours work condensed into three! How is that slacking!?"

"You work for me Ms Mitchell" He said jabbing a thumb towards himself. I've given you set rules and set times to work in. That means working from whenever I tell you, until I tell you." He looked down at Beca. "Although quite frankly, you should be working in a kitchen, not a mechanics work shop." His eyes raked over her blue overall encased body with distain. "Women aren't made for these kinds of jobs."

Beca blinked in disbelief but then her eyes hardened and her fists clenched, the knuckles whitening almost immediately. "What did you just say to me?"

Jesse put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to stop her but she shook him off immediately.

"The kitchen, Mitchell. I said the kitch-"

The opening strands of the companies theme tune cut off the rest of Jefferson's sneering answer and all three turned their heads towards the flashing consol, a customer was calling.

Pushing past them he threw one last glare over his shoulder and strode over to answer the incoming call, but not before tossing back one more cutting remark. "Go back to your natural habit and get me my coffee. I'm going to need it if I'm going to have to put up with your feminine crap today." He pushed the green dial and his voice instantly changed from contemptuous to courteous and gracious. "Hello this is Jefferson's garage, how can I help?"

Beca almost followed him, ready to punch the pretentious prick in the face but Jesse quickly pulled her back and away by the arm, steering her towards the exit. It was only once they were around the corner and out of sight did Jesse finally allow Beca rip her arm away. She was a spitfire, he'd give her that.

Beca was furious. "What kind of a fucking sexist asshole does he think he is?!"

Jesse stepped back a little, putting his hands up as if in surrender in attempt to placate the small brunette. "The kind of asshole we just need to put up with for just one more day then we're done."

Beca scowled in frustration and swiped an angry hand over her head. "Ugh! He is just so fucking unfair!" She kicked a nearby bin in angry resentment, although it did little to elevate her fury.

Jesse lurched forward to catch the bin before it hit the ground and steadied it. "I know, but today's our last day, then we get transferred to a new job and we'll never have to see him again, ever."

"I can't fucking wait!"

"Right with you there Becs."

She gave him a harsh look. "Don't call me that."

He sighed. "Look, just go get him a coffee." She whipped around, mouth open slightly in disbelief, and Jesse quickly backtracked. "It'll give you time to cool down and you can even get yourself something if you want. If you go back in there now, there's a large chance you'll beat the crap out of him and that'll definitely get you fired and then you won't be able to stay here. So just try and cool off Ok?"

Beca held his earnest gaze for a few seconds before finally admitting to herself that he was actually right. "Fine." She headed straight for the exit, missing Jesse's concern look.

Just because she had to go get Jefferson's coffee didn't mean that something couldn't happen to it on the way back. She could accidently spit in it or even accidently trip at the last second, sending the scalding brew down his chest. The galaxy was a dangerous place after all, who knew what could happen. Entirely accidently of course.

 

\------

 

Beca yanked open the coffee shop door, the little bell sounding out her arrival, and stepped inside, casually taking in the small but cosy surroundings. Little round tables with matching wooden but comfortable chairs were dotted around the room, easily complementing the soft brown hues of the walls. It gave an almost rustic atmosphere to the place, a feeling Beca actually welcomed despite the pang of homesickness that followed afterwards. She missed her home on Earth more than she'd like to admit.

The walk over to the coffee shop had helped her reign in her anger quite a bit but she still stopped for a moment to push it down all the way. She saw no point on taking it out on a stranger.

The bell dinged again and Beca moved away from the entrance to allow others to come in, going straight to the back of the two person line, dodging a few chairs and people as she went. There was only one man behind the counter so it looked like she might be there for a little while, despite the shortness of the queue. She didn't really mind, it just gave her more time away from Jefferson.

The fat asshole.

Looking behind the counter she located the chalk board menu and momentarily smiled when she saw an art filled chalk board instead of the usual computerised screens. Names of all different kinds of coffees floated across her vision, including many which she didn't recognise. In fact there were more unknowns on the board than those she knew, very few actually containing milk or extra toppings at all. Beca supposed it was probably due to not receiving enough incoming supplies to afford letting the public get all their luxuries at once, which was actually entirely true. She didn't even get her own shower in her apartment, instead she had to share with however many others in the communal showers. All that separated her from another naked body was a thin and not quite opaque shower curtain. She made sure to always avoid the morning and evening rush; she'd learnt that the hard way.

"You know, you left half way through my medical check up, that was kinda rude." Beca froze. The tone wasn't accusatory; in fact it was even mildly amused. Beca whipped round and was immediately met with smiling blue eyes. She blinked and it took a few seconds to remember the name that went with the face.

"Uh, Chloe ... Beale right?"

"Yep, that's me." The redhead said smiling.

"I, uh, yeah. Sorry about leaving." Beca shifted uncomfortably. She hated apologising to anyone, let alone someone she'd met just once, it never seemed to some out sincere which most of the time she actually was.

Chloe shrugged good-naturedly as she spoke. "Oh don't worry about it; I just guessed the rest of it. So if anyone asks, you're totally fine and totally aren't going to die any time soon."

"Damn, I totally planned on doing that tomorrow."

"Please don't, that would be a total waste of a hot body." Chloe said with a wink before taking a sip of her own drink that Beca had previously not noticed.

Was she being... flirted with?

When Beca didn't answer back other than to awkwardly smile again, Chloe cleared her throat and wrapped her free arm around herself, resting her coffee holding arm on top of it in a relaxed pose. "So you're in engineering?" She said nodding down at Beca's oil smattered overalls.

Glad for the conversation change Beca looked down at her blue overalls and briefly fiddled with a particularly large oil stain. "Maintenance actually. I work at Jefferson's garage just down the ward." Beca gestured vaguely in the right direction. The line moved and both women unconsciously shifted along together.

Chloe grimaced, her nose wrinkling with distaste. "Jefferson? As in tall, grumpy and balding Jefferson who owns the car repair shop?"

"Unfortunately, that would be him, the biggest dick around."

"Jeesh, I feel bad for you. I can't imagine having to work for him. I had to give him a medical check once." Her nose wrinkled again and Beca noticed a light smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. "I swear, I don't remember a time where I've been insulted so much in under thirty seconds. I almost frowned at him."

Beca couldn't help chuckling. "You almost frowned? Wow. Ok. It's official, you are possible the happiest person I've ever met."

Chloe cocked her head playfully, her hair falling in silky waves about her shoulders. "You sound as if that's a bad thing."

Beca let herself relax into the conversation. "It isn't! But I mean, you actually have to work at frowning?"

"Hey! I can frown; I was just trying to be professional at the time!"

"Dude. You tried frowning like two minutes ago and all you did was screw up your nose a bit."

"Oh I can totally do it. But if I showed you, you might run away screaming."

"You said something like that when I asked about your middle name. Do I sense a dark side?" Beca gave her a crooked grin. "You're not going to murder me are you? Because that would just mess up your medical report." She paused. "And totally screw up my day."

Chloe tipped her head back and laughed. "Damn, you've found a hope in once flawless plot." Beca smirked at her and she realised that she was actually having fun talking to her.

Beca let Chloe's laughter simmer into a soft silence for a second, letting the ambience of the small cafe flow smoothly around them. "So, apart from stalking me, why are you here?"

"Oh, I'm waiting for a friend but I came here a little early. But then I saw you and thought I'd bother you for a while."

Beca cocked her head slightly. "Do you this to every person you don't really know?"

"Nope, so consider yourself special." Beca rolled her eyes.

"Umm, excuse me miss? Are you in the queue?" Both Beca and Chloe turned to face the new voice of the cafe worker; Chloe had to lean sideways to see around the brunette. On closer inspection the man looked much younger than he did from afar, maybe actually being around Beca's age. He had an open face that had a pleasant if slightly awkward smile. Beca walked to the front with a quick glance at the chalk board before ordering.

"Uh, sorry. Can I get two espressos please?"

"Sure. Is that to go?"

"Yeah thanks." He smiled and nodded before reaching for the coffee dispensing machine. "Oh! Actually!" His head snapped up questioningly. "Could you make one of them the smallest, cheapest sizes you have?"

Both Chloe's and the Cafe worker's brow dipped in confusion. "The smallest we have is a two shot of coffee. There's really not a lot in there. Are you sure?"

"Yep." Beca turned back to Chloe and at her raised eyebrow she explained. "What? Did you really think that I'd spend my own money buying Jefferson a proper coffee?" Chloe shook her head in amusement and took another sip of her drink, her eyes crinkling around the edge.

After receiving and paying for the two coffees, along with a last minute decision to get a chocolate muffin, the two moved away from the counter. By now she should really be getting back, Jesse would be wondering where she was and was probably still enduring Jefferson's insufferable company back in the workshop.

Somehow Beca managed to juggle both cups of coffee and her muffin but still looked conflicted as to what she wanted to do. She really didn't want to go back and Chloe was quite fun to talk to but she'd already been gone for a good twenty minutes. It was Chloe that made up her mind for her.

"Hey, do you need to go now or do you have a bit of time?" Beca looked over at her. "I mean, I still have some time to kill and well, do you want to spend it with me?"

Beca checked the clock on the wall. Twelve past ten.

She was already in trouble with Jefferson, Jesse was alone with no buffer against the prick and she did have lot of work to do before the end of the day. However, she did need to eat her muffin. "Yeah, I have time."

Chloe's eyes brightened considerably. "Great!" And she pulled her along, the muffin still balancing precariously atop of Beca's arm until they reached a small, almost secluded table in the corner. Beca didn't have time to even think about pushing away the hand that had gently but firmly held her wrist. Chloe waited until Beca had managed to put all three items down without spilling its contents before delving into conversation again.

"So, are you sure you're not a singer? Because we really need people and at the moment it's just me and Aubrey."

Beca blinked. "Oh yeah, I forgot you were into A-capella. And no, I still don't sing." Chloe pouted playfully and Beca shot her a smirk before ripping a sizable chunk off of her muffin, glad that the texture was still deliciously moist.

"Are you sure, like totally sure?"

Beca rolled her eyes. "Well you know, if your friend took the stick out of her ass for just two seconds then you might actually get some people to join."

"Hey Aubrey isn't that bad! I admit she can be a little... abrasive sometimes but she's actually great once you get to know her." She said poking Beca's hand.

Beca just rolled her eyes. "She just needs to get laid."

She smirked and sipped her coffee. "Yeah, that too."

Silence lulled about them for the second time and they exchanged small smiles. Beca swirled her coffee and leaned back, eyes flitting over the shop again. A couple had just left but there were still a modicum amount of people populating the cosy, little cafe. The barrister was serving another customer, a woman, with just the usual coffee, nothing out of the ordinary and Beca was just about to turn her attention back to Chloe when something caught her eye out of her periphery.

The cafe worker had looked around briefly before placing a small white package along with the woman's order. The woman paid and briskly walked away, quickly pocketing the little parcel. The cafe worker looked on as if nothing had happened.

Holy shit, was that a drug trade?

Beca whipped around and scanned the room rapidly, looking to see if anyone had just seen what she had just seen but all heads were down, engrossed in whatever conversation, book or coffee at hand.

 

Did no one else see that?!

This place is fucking public!

That was in the fucking open!

What the hell?

 

"Hey Beca? You Ok?." Beca whirled back round and Chloe's slightly concerned face came back into focus.

"Hmm? Uh, yeah." She gave herself a metal shake and gave Chloe a small smile. Maybe... maybe that wasn't drugs. No one else seems to be panicking, and what dealer would dare do it in the open? "I'm fine."

Chloe cocked a brow but let it go. "Well, if you're sure." And she started a new conversation.

They sat there for well over quarter of an hour, enjoying the banter between them until had both had finished their respective drinks and food, although Jefferson's remained untouched and cold. And surprisingly Beca actually forgot about the dealing in the shop, she wouldn't remember it until she got home until later that evening.

All of her previous anger and annoyance had completely dissipated and she found that she was genuinely enjoying Chloe's company. It didn't even occur to her that she didn't usually like talk to strangers much at all, let alone have coffee with them. But then again, Chloe had been the one to pretty much initiate every conversation. Beca had a feeling Chloe was just one of those naturally happy people.

It wasn't until a man darted up to them apologising profusely to Chloe for being late, that he'd been held up at work that Beca realised it was probably time to go. A look at her Omni-tool told her it was definitely time to go. Man was she going to be in trouble.

She grabbed Jefferson's drink and said good bye to Chloe. "I'll uh, see you around I guess." She nodded awkwardly as if to confirm her good bye and then turned on her heel and headed for the door. She heard Chloe's voice call out after her.

"Bye Beca!"

She fought the urge to smile.

\-----

"Oh thank god! Where have you been?" Jesse scrambled up towards her a little too quickly and bounced towards her.

"Getting coffee?" She held up the small cup in her hand and shook it lightly in sarcastic emphasis.

He raised a questioning brow. "And that took you forty minutes for that? The place is like five minutes away!"

She placed the cold coffee on Jefferson's thankfully empty desk and turned to face him. "The queue was just really long."

"What, were there like fifty people there?"

"Just shut up Jesse."


	3. How A Shower Can Change You...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, when I say 'OSD' I mean like a large-ish, flat like data pad, a lot like a memory stick I guess. Just a little more Mass Effect creeping in there...

\-----

 

Beca couldn't move, literally. She'd stepped into the studio and just stopped, her mouth falling open and her eyes hungrily taking in every little detail. It was a small room with messy desks and cluttered corners. Labelled OSD's covered the place, filled with musical tracks of all kinds, ranging from the heaviest screamo tracks to the softest country music. Posters of all the latest and biggest artists littered the walls and the smell of popcorn and pizza lingered everywhere. She loved it.

But the highlight, the best part, was the central desk; the core of operations.

The majority of it was filled with all kinds of DJ-ing equipment, the likes of which Beca could only dream about owning. Compact disc players and high range mixers were piled on the desks, microphones were in just the right place to speak comfortably and the SkyTech look to be almost brand new. This studio was pretty much everything she ever wanted. Not that she would get there any time soon, considering she was stuck here for at least a year.

"And the DJ has entered the house!"

"Shut up Amy."

She gave the grinning Aussie blonde a mock glare but walked over and dumped herself in the next chair, her toolbox clanking loudly beside her. "So what's actually broken?"

"We, err, broke the power box."

"You broke the power box? How the hell did you do that?" Beca twisted around in her chair, looking around for the broken consol, finding it sitting in the corner looking more than a little worse for wear. Dents were clearly visible and there was a long scratch around the base. She looked incredulously back at Amy who looked a little sheepish. "Seriously, how?"

"Ah, yeah, uhh. My boyfriends came around and moved it so I could have more room in here and they uh, don't have particularly gentle hands... but, you know, I like it that way." She winked and grinned.

"Dude! Too much information." Beca blinked hard and shook her head to clear her head of the images that were quickly filling her mind, she did not need those. "Wait, boyfriends?"

Amy wriggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Well, you know, what guy can resist my sexy arse?"

Beca opened her mouth but didn't really know how to respond without either being overly awkward or a little insulting. "Uh... well you got me there..."

Amy turned to grin at her again but her Omni-tool buzzed on her wrist, a message popping up. "Whoop, I gotta go. The boss-man wants me. Laters short stack!" And with that she hefted herself up and mock saluted Beca as she left the room.

Beca rolled her eyes and smiled to herself. Despite Amy's tendency to exaggerate and sometimes reveal far too much information than necessary, she was fun to be around and you didn't even have to talk that much. It was a win-win situation really.

However unfortunately, she needed money and for that she actually had to do some work. Sighing she unenthusiastically dragged herself off of her chair and moved towards the damaged power box. Hopefully the insides wouldn't be so bad. Her hopes were quickly dashed when she removed the side.

"Oh for fucks sake."

Just one look told her that she was going to be there for much longer than she originally thought.

Almost none of the leads were in their allocated sockets and the ones there were, were dangerously close to falling out. Right at the bottom sat the loose wires, all tangled together in a chaotic mass. She genuinely couldn't tell where one wire started or where another finished.

"Fucking fuck." She muttered again. When she had accepted the job she'd jumped at the opportunity to at least see the inside of a proper studio, just to see what it was like. Stupidly she'd thought it would be an easy task, which granted it was; it was just mind numbingly boring and tedious. Untangling and putting wires back into their appropriate place was not her idea of a fitting job for a mechanic. She had better things to do.

She'd been working steadily for a few minutes, only managing to rescue three wires out of God knows how many when her own Omni-tool buzzed on her wrist - Jesse wanted to video call. Irritably she took off the buzzing device and set it up; setting it on top on the damaged box so she could talk and work at the same time.

"What is it Jesse?"

"Woah, Ok. Someone's happy."

She exhaled, visibly annoyed. "What do you want?"

He held his hands up in submission. "I was only calling to see if you were ready to try out the connection, but I can go if you want."

She sighed and swiped a hand over her face quickly before grudgingly apologising. "Sorry. I take it everything's all good down there?"

"It's Ok; I can't find any damage so I think it's all your end." He smiled ruefully. "Sorry."

"Yeah, it is. The power box is down so it's not even a connection thing; just untangling wires and putting them back in place."

Jesse's brow furrowed. "Seriously? They made that much of a fuss over a bunch of wires?"

"I don't think they even bothered to find out the problem themselves. Lazy dicks. I mean, look." She fumbled with the Omni-tool causing Jesse's vision of her to blur drastically until the resolution managed to finally show what Beca was talking about. "That, I have to deal with that."

"Ouch! That looks... bad. Have fun with that." The corners of his mouth curled into a grin as she propped her Omni-tool back up again.

"Stop smiling and shut up." When she glared at him, he started laughing and Beca groaned in frustration. "It's not that funny!"

"It is from where I am! You were so excited to go!"

She yanked out a few wires harder than she meant to and glared at him again. "Dick."

"Hey, you were the one who wanted to go the studio! If fact I distinctly remember you practically begging to go there!" He was still sniggering to himself.

"That was only because I thought it would a quick job!" It wasn't a lie, just not necessarily the whole truth. Jesse didn't know much about her life and she was perfectly happy about letting it stay that way. The less people intruded on her life, the better. It would make it easy to move to the Omega station later on.

"Well it sucks to be you then." His grin still hadn't left his face and she was becoming more annoyed by the second.

"Shut up."

"Ooo, touchy."But finally sensing that she really wasn't in the mood he cleared his throat and started again. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you something if that's Ok?"

"I'm sensing that the question you wanted to ask me wasn't that?"

He gave her a look but chuckled a little anyway. "Uh, no it wasn't. Anyway, there's a small thing on the Quad tonight, like a party and I was just wondering, you know, if you wanted to, maybe, go with me?" She paused her work and looked up, surprise moulding into her expression. He coughed awkwardly but smiled nervously anyway.

"Jesse..." She started to say but he cut her off before she could continue.

"I know you're probably really busy with stuff but I thought it could be fun you know? We don't do a lot together apart from working so I just thought it might be something cool to do, if you're up for it, that is."

"I... Jesse, I don't really... do parties, sorry." It wasn't a complete lie per-se. Whilst it was true she absolutely loved the music and the atmosphere of parties, she just didn't like the socialising part of it or the dancing. Twenty years of being herself had taught her well enough that she was terrible on the dance floor. If and when she became a DJ she wouldn't have to worry about that, she'd only have to provide the music and atmosphere and only had to talk to who she wanted to. No dancing required.

"Seriously?! How can you not like parties?"

"They're just not my thing Ok?"

"I do not know what you've been doing for fun all this time."

"Avoiding parties?" He rolled his eyes as she tugged the last few cables free of each other and let a wave of triumph flow over her. Now to just plug them all in, which was by far easier said than done. Most of them were just a plain black wire with the average connector, giving absolutely no indication of having a specific slot. "Son of a fucker..." She muttered under her breath.

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyways, if that's it then I'm going to go."

"But-"

"Bye Jesse." And she hung up. Sure her abrupt goodbye to Jesse was a little rude but she just didn't want to talk to him anymore. Her mood was already more than a little soured and pretending to give a crap in a conversation took more energy than she was willing to give at the time. Besides, she just really wanted a shower after work; she'd voluntarily missed out that morning after she'd walked in on a far too naked make out session and now her hair really needed a wash.

In an act of procrastination she re-strapped her Omni-tool back to her wrist and checked the time. Only 37 minutes before the end of the working day. She looked at the mess in front of her and sighed again for the third time since she'd got there.

"Son of a bitch."

 

\----

 

"You shout it loud, but I can't hear a word you say. I'm talking loud, not saying much."

Beca walked into the communal showers singing softly to herself. She'd long since made sure she was alone, checking out all of the changing rooms to see if they were empty before getting undressed herself.

If she was entirely honest, she did lie to Chloe before. She did sing, just not in public. She restricted herself to singing in the shower and whenever she needed a back up voice in one of her mixes, which was a rare occurrence. It wasn't that she was averse to singing in public, if fact she didn't really mind; it was just that she preferred to keep the attention away from herself if possible. It helped shut people out.

She pulled off her robe, still singing, and hung it up just outside of her stall alongside her towel so it wouldn't get wet. She put her shampoo and conditioner on the shower shelf too.

As the cool air touched her body, goose bumps erupted all over her arms and legs causing her to quickly turn on the hot stream of water. She silently thanked whoever was responsible for the constant preheated water.

"Ricochet, you take your aim. Fire away, fire away."

She let the hot water stream over her back and chest, sliding down between her spine and breasts before it pooled at her feet. She could feel her muscles already appreciating the watery massage and after two seconds she moved to put her head under the pressurised stream. She almost stopped singing to groan in contentment.

"You shoot me down, but I won't fall."

But then her shower curtain was yanked back.

"You can sing!"

Beca whipped round in shock, almost tripping over her own feet in attempt to keep her balance and cover herself at the same time. She froze, eyes wide in shock until a second later. "Oh my God!" She yanked the shower curtain back across only to have it jerked back just as quickly a moment later by a red blur. Clutching the shower curtain back stood Chloe Beale in all her grinning naked glory.

"How high does your belt go!?"

"What?" Beca's confusion briefly over ran her alarm but it came back just as fast. "Dude! Get out!" Beca grabbed for her towel, not even waiting to let it unfold enough to cover herself properly before pressing it against her body, trying to hide behind it as much a possible. Then before she could say anything more Chloe leaned over and switched off the tap, letting the brunette get an accidentally good look at the red head's chest. "Oh my God!"

Apparently Chloe was not nearly as affected by their mutual nakedness as Beca was since she made no effort to cover herself. "You have to join the Bellas!"

"I can't concentrate on anything until you cover your junk!"

"Just, consider it. One time we sang back up for Prince." She grinned and she leaned in as if she were sharing a secret whilst Beca made a blind grab for the shower curtain again, pulling it around her as much as possible. "His butt was so tiny you could like hold it in one hand." Chloe's gesturing hand accidently knocked Beca's shampoo to the floor. "Oops!" Beca practically fell to the floor in her haste to pick up the fallen shampoo bottle and stood up facing the wall. At least her whole front was covered now right? Although now she'd unintentionally given Chloe the perfect view of her ass.

"Jesus! Seriously?! I'm nude!"

Chloe ignored her protests and smiled. "You were singing Titanium right?

"...You know Titanium?" Despite Beca's immense discomfort and frustration she couldn't help her curiosity from ebbing through.

"Uh, yeah? That songs my jam." She leaned in again with a sly smirk causing Beca to tilt away just to keep whatever personal space she had left. "My lady jam." She said with a wink and a grin.

"That's nice." Beca could really not feel any more uncomfortable and right now.

"Yeah, it really builds you know? ...Can you sing it for me?"

Spoke to soon, now she could not get any more uncomfortable. Images of the naked couple she'd seen in the showers that morning flooded back into her mind. "Dude no! Get out! You've already stalked me at the coffee place!"

"Not for that reason silly! And I totally did not stalk you. I was there before you remember? So if anything, you stalked me." Beca opened her mouth to argue but realised Chloe was right so she settled for glaring at the amused redhead over her shoulder. "You know, I'm not leaving until you sing."

When Beca didn't move other than to intensify her glare Chloe gave her an exaggerated sigh, and put her hands on her hips as if to show she was going to be waiting for a while.

Finally Beca gritted her teeth and with one last hard look at the waiting Redhead, awkwardly shuffled around, her hands still clutching her towel tightly around her. If this was the only way to get Chloe to leave, then so be it.

Clearing her throat uncomfortably, she looked everywhere but the naked woman in front of her. She took a few admittedly nervous breaths before starting in the chorus.

"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose." Chloe grinned and joined in, somehow managing to harmonise easily with Beca's voice, taking the higher pitch to compliment the brunette's lower timbre. "Fire away, fire away."

Somehow, likely out of shock, Beca brought herself to meet Chloe's eyes. The corners of Chloe's mouth tilted up even further, clearly happy that Beca singing with her. Beca however kept her eyes trained on Chloe's not daring to look away lest she see more than she should. Her peripheral vision was giving her a lot anyway.

"...titanium." The two both trailed off at the same time and Beca even managed to give Chloe a small smile of her own until she realised that they were both still very naked. She coughed awkwardly and averted her gaze until Chloe finally noticed.

"Oh, sorry." She passed Beca her robe who pressed it against herself just as tightly as her towel before looking down at her own naked body. "Yeah... I'm kinda confident about all this." She said with a shrug and a smile.

"You should be." Beca's awkward agreement was met with yet another grin.

"So should you." Chloe winked and Beca could actually feel her face flushing a deep red. Oh God. Chloe chuckled and Beca couldn't decide if the redhead actually enjoyed seeing her squirm or whether the woman genuinely had no idea about all the lines she was crossing, the personal space ones especially. Probably a mix of the two.

She coughed awkwardly and swallowed. "I still need to shower..."

"Oh! Right, yeah." Chloe gave her one last smile before turning on her heel, throwing one last comment over her shoulder, waving as she went. "See you at auditions!"

Beca didn't move for at least a minute until she was absolutely sure that she was alone before lowering her towel again. She was still trying to process what had just happened. An... Acquaintance, a naked acquaintance had barged their way into her shower even after ignoring all her protests and forcing her to sing with her before demanding that she audition for their music group.

And she really didn't know how to feel about that.

The two times she'd met the boisterous redhead beforehand, Chloe had both flirted with her and invited her to audition for the Bellas, claiming the competitions were fantastic and that Acapella was actually great fun. And to be honest, Beca hadn't tried it before so she probably shouldn't knock it right?

But then an idea hit her. What if one of the competitions took place on Omega? If she could get to Omega then maybe she wouldn't have to wait for the full year to be over and she could become a DJ quicker and- Fuck.

Auditions.

She had to audition first.

Beca groaned and fought the urge to hit her head against the wall. She had no idea where the hell they were being held, or even when for that matter. Plus she had no idea what to sing, did they want something soft or what? She roughly turned the shower back on again, the water immediately splashing over her face and shoulders.

This had better fucking count as 'enjoying the year' Dad, because I'm not doing anything more.

 

\-----

 

"Oh wait, there's one more!"

"Sorry... I, uh, didn't know we had to prepare that song."

Chloe grinned at Beca. "No worries, just go with what you want."

**Author's Note:**

> Btw, I cannot promise at all that I can update regularly, I have a fairly busy schedule so I'm pretty sure it'll be fairly irregular... Actually that's a lie. I'm just lazy.


End file.
